Amegilla cingulata
| Amegilla cingulata | ||||||||||||
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Blue-banded fur bee ( Amegilla cingulata ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Amegilla cingulata | ||||||||||||
| Fabricius , 1775 |
Amegilla cingulata is a blue-banded fur bee that isnative to Australia,but is also found in many other regions. Research is being carried out into how these beescan benefit agriculturethrough their pronounced " vibration pollination", since this type of pollination enables them to get to pollen that other bees can hardly reach, like tomato flowers. These bees are very important to food production and account for at least 30% of the harvest in Australia.
Taxonomy
A. cingulata was first described in 1775 by the Danish entomologist Johann Christian Fabricius .
The name addition cingulata comes from the Latin word cingulum ("belt") and refers to the banding on the bees' bodies. The genus Amegilla contains more than 250 other species, some of which, however, can hardly be distinguished from A. cingulata, which leads to frequent confusion.
features
A. cingulata has a very striking appearance, similar to that of some other Amegilla species. The head and thorax are covered with golden hairs, the abdomen is streaked with pale blue bands on black. The sexes can be differentiated based on the number of complete bands. Males have five of these ligaments, females only four; the blue bands of the males are somewhat paler. A. cingulata can reach a size of about 10-12 mm, with females becoming slightly larger than males.
Occurrence
The species is native to Australia, but has also been sighted in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia and India, the latter sightings also referring to misidentified specimens of similar species, such as Amegilla zonata . The main habitat is in tropical and subtropical regions. The bees live there in urban areas, forests and heathland.
nutrition
A. cingulata gets most of the nectar from blue flowers; blossoms such as those of the silver , abelia and lavender species serve as a source of nectar. Of the non-blue flowers, sage flowers, tomato and eggplant flowers, as well as the flowers of some verbena plants make up the main source of nutrition. The bees use vibratory pollination, which increases the release of pollen. They hold on to the flowers and vibrate vigorously by hitting their head against the flower up to 350 times per second. They only have a limited range of about 300 m from their nest for foraging. Females undertake at least nine search flights a day.
Way of life
Blue-banded bees can sting, but are less aggressive than other bee species. The way they fly, they seem to move faster than other bees. During the night, males cling to plant stems. The bees live solitary ; Females inhabit caves individually in the ground or in soft stone. Unlike honey bees, for example, they do not live in large social colonies.
The females of A. cingulata build solitary nests, but often close to other conspecifics. They often nest in parched river banks, old mud houses, and mortar between bricks, but they can also dig in soft sandstone; Areas of this rock type can be interspersed with bee tunnels. Cells at the end of the tunnel contain an egg with a pollen / nectar mixture for the larval food.
Threats
A. cingulata is hunted by many animals including the cane toad , frogs, and birds. Their nests are parasitized by spotted bees such as the Thyreus nitidulus . Human activities, such as clearing river banks, can threaten this bee's nesting site.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Peter Reuell: Making use of the head. In: The Harvard Gazette. February 3, 2016, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Callin Switzer, Katja Hogendoorn, Sridhar Ravi, Stacey Combes: Shakers and head bangers: Differences in sonication behavior between Australian blue banded bees and North American bumblebees . In: Integrative and Comparative Biology . tape 56 . Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 217 .
- ↑ Species Amegilla ( Zonamegilla ) cingulata (Fabricius, 1775). In: Australian Faunal Directory. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, archived from the original on November 4, 2013 ; accessed on March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Blue Banded Bees. In: brisbaneinsects.com. Retrieved March 27, 2019 .
- ^ A b c d e Anne Dollin, Michael Batley: Native Bees of the Sydney Region . Australian Native Bee Research Center, North Richmond, NSW 2000, ISBN 1-876307-07-2 , pp. 52 .
- ^ Ian David Naumann: Insects of Australia . 2nd Edition. CSIRO Publishing; Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1991, ISBN 978-0-643-10111-1 , pp. 999 .
- ↑ Common Blue-banded Bee. In: Australian Museum . October 12, 2018, accessed March 27, 2019 .